D’Cota Dixon thinks he would be just fine making a transition to the colder environment of the Big Ten Conference. He’s braved the cold twice with recruiting visits to Michigan State and Wisconsin, the latter coming this past weekend when snow dumped on Madison.

“It snowed the whole time except the day I left,” said Dixon, an athlete from New Smyrna Beach who will play college cornerback or safety. “It was a lot of snow. I enjoyed that. … I was making snow angels; having snowball fights … I was loving it.

“I think I can get used to it. It wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be. The visit just showed me I could be around and live in the snow.”

Obviously Dixon liked Wisconsin; and the Badgers obviously like Dixon. After returning from Madison on Sunday, Dixon entertained members of the Wisconsin coaching staff in New Smyrna Beach on Monday during an in-home visit.

“I wasn’t expecting them to want to come the next day, but they did,” said 5-foot-11, 190-pound Dixon.

Dixon, the No. 6 player in the Sentinel's 2014 Central Florida Super60, is down to four schools of his 20 FBS offers, with trips still planned to Louisville this weekend and West Virginia on the final recruiting weekend before National Signing Day (Feb. 5). There could be, however, one more in the picture.

“There’s been a rumor about Florida, but I don’t know about it. I talked to their personnel director right before I went to Wisconsin,” Dixon said. “He was asking me about my grades and my test scores and said I’m a really good player and that they’d be in contact.”

Dixon, who has already gone through the NCAA Clearinghouse and is qualified for the next level, would welcome, certainly, a UF offer, but he’s not worried about it.

“Oh yeah, that would put them in the mix, especially since my brother went there,” Dixon said of his oldest brother Daryl Dixon, who is an assistant coach at Ball State. D’Cota has another brother, Dexter Dixon, who plays at Mount Union in Ohio.

“I don’t like to hope or anything like that. I feel like God makes things happen for me for a reason. I don’t really stress on it too much. If they come, they come ... if they don’t, they don’t. They are kind of pushing it … I can’t wait forever, and of course I’m not waiting on them. I have my visits I’m waiting on right now.”

New Smyrna Beach defensive back D'Cota Dixon said Wednesday that Michigan State is in the driver's seat in the recruitment battle for his services, but he also said he has plenty of options to consider before Feb. 5, National Signing Day.

This time, something strange and wonderful happened. The skies cleared, the rain stopped and the starving blind man gorged himself on a much-needed victory and finally regained his sight ¿ the vision of making the playoffs.